In his application Ser. No. 653,551, MULTIPLE DEVICE EXERCISE SYSTEM, the inventor disclosed a unified system of various exercise devices sharing a common extruded set of parallel tracks which could be conveniently folded into a wall-mounted cabinet. One of said various exercise devices of application Ser. No. 653,551 is a rollingly captive ski-pad, typically used in pairs between adjacent sets of tracks. The person wishing to use said ski-pads for simulation of the leg motion of skiing would, as disclosed in application Ser. No. 653,551, encounter little or no mechanical resistance to the motion of the ski pads relative to the tracks, a condition which simulates only one of many possible skiing snow conditions.
Skiing snow, as is well known, can in actuality vary from slick, almost non-resistive condition, to slushy, sticky, highly motion-resistant condition, the latter condition requiring considerably more muscle exertion of an actual skiier than the former condition. One of the purposes of simulating skiing leg motion in a home or exercise-spa type exercise device is to enable skiiers to realistically build the proper muscles during non-skiing season, so that they will be more supple, prepared, and less accident prone during actual skiing.
It is sometimes important, as when recovering from an injury to one leg, that a person seeking to perform a skiing-simulation exercise be able to impose motion resistance on one leg which differs from the motion resistance imposed on the other leg. It is also desirable, but not provided by prior art ski-pads, to continuously vary the degree of motion resistance from zero or minimum to a maximum degree. In a ski-pad intended for use with a universal or multiple-device type of system such as that disclosed in said application Ser. No. 653,551, it is also important that the resistance adjustment means be self-contained, so far as possible, within the ski-pad, so as to reduce the complexity and difficulty of changing from ski-simulation to another form of exercise upon the universal structure.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a ski-pad having adjustable motion resistance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a ski-pad wherein motion resistance is continuously variable.
Another object of the invention is to provide a ski-pad which, when used in pairs, provides independent motion resistance adjustment for each ski-pad of the pair.
A further object of the invention is to provide a ski-pad wherein motion resistance means and adjustment means for same are self-contained within the ski-pad.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a ski-pad which is compatible with a universal track-type exercise system.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a ski-pad wherein worn motion-resistant material may easily be replaced.
A still further object of the invention is to provide enhanced realism in ski-simulation by breakaway attachability of conventional ski-boots to the ski-pad.